RIDE REVIEWS by Liz: Ride to Alabama Hills and Whitney Portal – 30 May 2019

Thursday, 30th May 2019

Before we left Lone Pine to ride to Lake Isabella and Kern River Canyon, that we would visit the Museum of Western Film History and ride up through the famous Alabama Hills to Whitney Portal. Being massive movie fans, we spent a long time at the museum, which was really great.

A few facts about the film museum: There is a 85-seat Wild West Theatre, which shows a 15 mins film: ‘Lond Pine – Where the Real West becomes the Reel West.’ The museum has an extensive collection of artifacts and memorabilia, costumes, props and posters from classica American Western films. Movie cameras, theatre projectors, and a real camera car are all on location. More than 400 movies, hundreds of TV episodes and more than 1,000 commercials have been filmed in the Alabama Hills. The museum was established in 2006 and is the premiere source for Western film heritage in the nation.

The entrance fee was US$5.00 and it was well worth it.

Then we rode to the Alabama Hills and to Whitney Portal (2552m high) and in an ‘active bear area’. The road was good and ended at a campsite in the pines near a waterfall.

Fantastic backdrop with the snow-covered peaks of Mount Whitney (4421m high). Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the USA. It was named for Josiah Dwight Whitney, the chief of the Californian State Geological Survey from 1860 to 1874.

Author: Liz Tompkinson